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A new report from the US Department of Agriculture (which oversees the Forest Service) confirms that America’s forests are trapping and storing billions of tons of carbon pollution – and increases in forest restoration have trapped emissions equivalent to taking 135 million cars off the highways.

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I’m going to stand out on a fairly strong limb and make a declaration just about everyone (from treehugger to tea partier) can agree with: restoring degraded natural areas is a good thing. Luckily this thinking is gaining ground in some pretty important circles.

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A few weeks ago I discussed a pending threat from Sen. Murkowski, and it looks like time is short. As you’ll recall, this should-be/ would-be climate champ is leading the charge to prevent the EPA from moving ahead on climate action. This is especially disconcerting, considering her home state of Alaska is feeling and will continue to feel the impacts of climate change far more than most places — just ask folks in Shishmaref and other towns falling into the sea!

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Ever hear the old adage that trees are the “lungs of the earth?” It creates an awesome visual and brings a human element to the towering giants that fill our forests. But did you know that forests in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast Alaska are among the Earth’s strongest “lungs?”

Take a close look at our national forests and you will find that they are scarred by a vast network of unused roads left over from years past. This road system was born of industrial logging practices allowed decades ago, but today it’s an outdated, crumbling and environmentally-harmful vestige on the land.

It’s time to start removing these roads, not only because doing so will improve water quality and help decrease a massive maintenance backlog, but because it will give us one more tool in the fight against climate change.

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Here's a simple question for our climate negotiators in Copenhagen: As we seek to highlight the need to preserve the carbon in the vast but shrinking forests in other countries, how are we doing here at home?

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You know about the contributions deforestation makes toward global warming, but now some scientists are asking the seemingly counter-intuitive question of whether harvesting timber can actually help decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

No doubt, the premise is appealing: Use the forests to soak up carbon dioxide from the air, then store that carbon dioxide elsewhere by harvesting the timber and turning it into home-building materials and other wood products. As new trees grow in the harvested area, the cycle begins again.